Category Archives for Leveraging the Cloud

Bosses of a publishing firm are trying to work out why no one noticed that one of their employees had been sitting dead at his desk for five days before anyone asked if he was feeling OK.

George Turklebaum, 51, who had been employed as a proofreader at a New York firm for 30 years, had a heart attack in the open-plan office he shared with 23 other workers.

He quietly passed away on Monday but nobody noticed until Saturday morning when an office cleaner asked him why he was still working during the weekend.

How do you walk past a dead guy?

In his book, Necessary Endings, Dr. Henry Cloud writes about the importance of pruning. He teaches that a gardener cuts off branches and buds that are healthy but not the best or sick but not going to get well or dead and taking up space needed for healthy ones to survive. He then writes, “(1) If an initiative is siphoning off resources that could go to something with more promise, it is pruned. (2) If an endeavor is sick and is not going to get well, it is pruned. (3) If it’s clear that something is already dead, it is pruned.

How do you walk past a dead initiative?

Companies get so buried in daily responsibilities they overlook what really matters. Digital Transformation matters, and the effort it takes to rally, craft and drive that initiative matters. In Part 1, we talked about rallying change through how you motivate, relate and connect.

Part 2 addresses how change needs to be crafted.

Establishing pace is essential. Pace deals with size and seasons. Leaders manage Digital Transformation so that reasonable benchmarks are reached in rational time.

Pace is critical. Michael Easter was the number one cyclist in California. During one race he cramped up and could not finish. He commented later, “All the skill and all the will can’t overcome dehydration.”

Chip and Dan Heath, in their book Shift add, “Self-control is an exhaustible resource. The bigger the change the more it saps self-control. When people exhaust self-control, they exhaust the mental muscles needed to think creatively, to focus, to inhibit impulse, to persist in the face of frustration…Change is hard because people wear themselves out. What looks like laziness is often exhaustion.”

Three types of changes determine the size and seasons of changes.

1. Immediate Changes

What will we do to demonstrate that things are happening.

What small wins will validate the sacrifice people make?

What do people need to hear, to see or to experience that communicates this is change toward progress?

Immediate changes must result in positive experiences and allow leaders to reinforce the behavior they want to see. Group perception begins to shift. People do what others are doing. You’ve established an environment that fosters the new.

2. Incremental Changes

Long term vision; short term views. Incremental changes understand the impact of change and gives time for employees to understand and utilize new systems, processes and components.

Where immediate changes inspire, incremental changes anchor.

If X is implemented, what, if anything, might be unattended that is still a critical function to us?

If X is implemented, what, if anything, could be more than people can handle?

Time invested in one function means time may not be invested in another: When can we let go of something and not be impacted negatively?

How is the energy level? Do we need a celebration or a rest?

Do we have the right people in place to keep moving the right things forward?

Are the financial resources still in place for the next piece?

3. Ideological Change

Seth Godin in Tribes writes, “Ideas that spread, win…Do what you believe in. Paint a picture. Go there…The very nature of leadership is that you’re not doing what’s been done before. If you were, you’d be following, not leading.”

Ideology is belief that moves forward; it is vision turned into identity, capacity and destiny. Ideology clarifies, multiplies and solidifies.

You are immersed into Digital Transformation for a reason. How will people know, always, how these changes more firmly define them?

How will people experience greater growth themselves and, therefore, a sense of greater contribution than they have made before?

How do your ideas fulfill what your employees always hoped would be true of your company or of their talent?

Leaders craft change. They prune. They pace. They purposefully implement what is new.

Many of us like to think of data as bits of information floating around in the cloud — after all, what other way is there to envision something that’s more or less invisible to the naked eye? Well, if that’s how you refer to the data in your network, then it’s likely you’re treating it as such, too. The problem with this is that data deserves more respect than it’s getting. When companies make big decisions based on what they consider a ‘single-entity of data,’ they might be missing a lot of worthy information and could end up making a costly choice because of that.

The Deal with Data

There are currently a lot of trends surrounding data, but sometimes it’s not about the data itself — it’s about how you’re managing it. Because data is so fundamental to business operations, it’s time that we start treating data as a valuable asset to the company. Whether you need to imagine data wearing a suit and tie to work every day or that it’s sitting in the conference room at a team meeting, that’s fine. But, if you don’t, there may as well be big consequences for your company.

Unfortunately, it’s not so easy. The problem is, data is just too big. When it comes to gaining real value from interpreting data, it’s impossible to know where to begin. This is why companies are starting to look at data lakes and other solutions to help find what’s valuable, without wasting time on shuffling through data that might not serve a purpose. While data lakes might be out of the question for your business, there is a lot you can do on your own, first.

How to Make Data a True Asset

Just as you would set certain protocols and management tasks as a company leader, data shouldn’t be left out from this. Remember, data in many ways is an enterprise. Therefore, those same protocols and principles you assign to anything else in your company should also be assigned to data. Just as you would measure an employee’s performance, calculate your sales, or monitor your network’s security, you should monetize, measure, and manage your data the same way. This way, you can be sure that the information you gain from this data is truly meaningful, without any part of it being overlooked.

Apply Analytics to Data

How would you really internalize potentially imperative information at your company?

You would analyze it.

So, data needs to be analyzed, too, in the appropriate manner — just as you would apply analytics to any other aspect of your business. If you want real ROI, then it’s absolutely necessary to put data under the microscope. This can be hard when there is just a plethora of data out there, waiting to be sorted. Therefore, data needs to be evaluated while being combined with the analyses done on sales, marketing, and feedback.

If you’re not quite sure how to go about this, keep in mind that there are several lenses with which to look at data. According to James Burke, director at ISG, you can proceed this way:

Descriptive analytics: What happened?

Diagnostic analytics: Why did something happen?

Predictive analytics: What will happen next?

Prescriptive analytics: How can we make something happen?

Today, there are many resources companies can utilize to help analyze their data correctly and treat that information as an asset. When done consistently, companies will see positive results.

How Outsourcing a CIO Can Help With This

The right data can tell us about our business. If your company is eager to find strategies to grow, then it’s worth looking at that data to see if it holds any clues. Likewise, companies don’t want to spend money on resources they don’t need, especially if that budget is needed elsewhere. When treated as an asset, data can be very valuable in terms of understanding your business because it can give companies a better visual of what’s really necessary. But, this is difficult for companies to do on their own.

The solution?

Outsourcing your CIO — a professional who knows how to do all of this. They know what to look for, how to analyze it, and how to apply it to future decisions. They know what to take from a large amount of data, putting it under the microscope to find what’s valuable. They know what they are doing and how to help you. Investing in a CIO, then, will save your company a lot of time and money in the long run.

SMBs should not have to experience downtime if they simply implement a business disaster and recovery solution before downtime occurs, so that they can restore essential data quickly and painlessly, and resume normal business operations. Consider CloudEndure’s 2016 Disaster Recovery Survey.

Here are four things to know about downtime:

Downtime can happen more often than you think. This chart shows that 57 percent of companies have experienced a downtime event within the past three months or earlier! With a reliable backup and disaster recovery (BDR) solution in place, you can mitigate the damage when problems do arise. Make sure your BDR is able to provide a quick recovery and optimal recovery point, with troubleshooting on the issues to prevent them from occurring again.

Not only does downtime happen more frequently than you think, it’s also one of the biggest IT expenses a business can face.

A well-known fact of modern business is that backups fail – and when they do, you are unable to access any file changes or data created after the last successful backup. That can be very problematic for your business, especially if you rely on critical data in your daily operations. Your BDR solution needs to be backed by round-the-clock support. As such, you need regular backups – and verify their viability through backup tests – as frequently as your business or organization demands. As a result, you can focus on growing your business without worrying if you’ll be able to access critical files, or if you’ll have data in its most recent form.

Only 6 percent of businesses have never experienced a downtime event. As a business owner, you don’t necessarily have time to worry about when downtime will strike or the safety of your network – nor should you have to. That’s why you should seek 24x7x365 support for complete peace of mind with a reliable BDR solution. Get business continuity solution to act as your safety net so that if you’re a part of the 94 percent who do experience downtime, you won’t have to worry about it having negative, long-term effects on your business.

Cloud technology offers your business many benefits. It allows you to set up what is essentially a virtual office to give you the flexibility of connecting to your business anywhere, any time. With the growing number of web-enabled devices used in today’s business environment (e.g. smartphones, tablets), access to your data is even easier.

What is the Cloud?

The cloud is virtual and therefore does not require any hardware of your own to deliver a service. Cloud technology can deliver that service to you, without having to install anything or have it on a server at your business. This is something that you can access remotely, or via the Internet through your web browser. Offsite, secure third party data centers manage all of your cloud data so that you can access it at your convenience.

You May Already be Using the Cloud

Are you using Gmail? Amazon Music? A Kindle? Dropbox? These are all cloud services that store the data you access. All you have to do is log in to their servers to get what you need. If you use an Apple iPhone or iPad, then you’re familiar with the iCloud service, the cloud technology that allows you to sync and upload your photos and contacts.

Why Use the Cloud?

The cloud is convenient for accessing and backing up data no matter where you go. With it, you can access servers anywhere, rather than just locally from your office. This allows you to perform your job duties at home and on the go! There is no need to carry around (and risk losing) USB drives with sensitive information on them. If you lose that USB drive, then your files are gone forever. If you back them up to the cloud or store them there, however, you can easily retrieve that data.

Why is the Term “Cloud” Used?

There is both a literal and figurative meaning here. Have you ever laid down in the grass, and looked up at the clouds in the sky? Oh, look, an elephant! A boat! Oh nice, a dinosaur! But the person next to you may not see the same shapes. They may see a sandwich, a skyscraper or an airplane in the clouds instead. The possibilities are almost endless, and not everyone has the same vision. Cloud technology is similar, offering a plethora of possibilities to help support and scale your business. Also, clouds are generally always above us. Just head on up, and grab whatever you need on-demand. The sky is always accessible.

So, you can store and access files in the Cloud. You can use cloud-hosted applications, like Gmail and GoogleDocs. Finally, the cloud gives you access to your data anywhere with a network connection. This all sounds great, right? It is, but as with anything on the Internet, these services need to be used responsibly. Is your IT services provider helping to manage this?

Make the most responsible choice to protect your client’s data, regardless of what they think is the best method. They’re not the experts.

I saw Leonard the other day, and he started the conversation off like he always does; “what are your thoughts about storing data in the cloud, like Google or Dropbox or something? My clients would have a problem with that so I keep all of their data in house.”

Leonard is a business attorney I’ve known for years, stemming from a board we were both members of. He thinks he’d be making a big mistake by trusting his data in the hands of an outsourced entity. “If you put it on Google or Dropbox, it’s out there!” he’ll say. Yes, it is. But the truth is it’s out there even on your hard drive in your office if that device is connected to a computer that is connected to the Internet – which it most likely is.

Knowing what I know – that Leonard’s extent of data security knowledge goes as far as his ability to plug in his little external hard drive his IT guy gave him – I’d have a huge problem if that is the way he handled my critical information. I’d trust the engineers at Google and Dropbox or in a data center handling managed services before I’d trust Leonard and his IT guy.

In our conversation, Leonard agreed that outsourced vendors probably do have better security, given the fact that it’s what they do for their lives (whew, a milestone). So when I asked why he still wouldn’t trust a 3rd party, it boiled down to because his clients would have a problem knowing that. I get it. His clients still think like he did (oh no, it’s ‘in the cloud’!). Well, regardless of their perception, isn’t it Leonard’s fiduciary responsibility (watch out for the legal terminology!) to make sure his clients’ information is safe, regardless of what they think?

Pretend Leonard’s clients’ data was compromised (actually much more likely to happen under his in house system). In the court of law, I wonder how a judge would rule if Leonard admitted to me he chose to store his client’s critical and sensitive information on his external hard drive when he knew about Google and Dropbox and managed services. I’m willing to bet it would go bad for Leonard.